Pearland baseball hopes to do what softball couldn’t

Coach Ben Pardo is working into his summertime, longer than most of the other staff at Pearland High School. His baseball team, which is jam-packed with seniors who graduated last week, is going to Austin this weekend.

It’s a trip to the state tournament like the school’s softball team made last weekend. Unfortunately, the girls were one win short of a title, but the boys hope to return with a trophy on board their bus.

Sam Khan Jr, the Chronicle high school sports writer, says the Oilers have been the underdogs this postseason. He’s not the only one who’s thought that, either. The players say that’s another reason to play their hearts out.

Pardo knows what his team is capable of doing, and that’s scoring runs. The Oilers have averaged 10.3 runs per game since the playoffs started, but the pitching has been the surprise. While Pardo can expect big hits and RBIs from anyone in the lineup, his pitching staff is young and had been inconsistent during the regular season because of the lack of experience.

Most of those worries have faded since Pardo saw his pitchers sweep a series with Brazoswood. It doesn’t hurt that his team pulled out victories as the underdog in every single postseason series. And, now, the attention is on the state tournament.

The Oilers will face Lufkin on Friday at 10 a.m., and will play again on Saturday if they win. Pardo says he’s not stressed, but you can bet the pressure is building since the girls were disappointed in their title game.

The last time the Oilers won a state baseball title was in 1980. Some players say it’s important to bring this title back to Pearland because their fathers were a part of that team from way back then. How cool is that?

The players denied being country boys when I pointed out that most of vehicles in the lot near the practice field were trucks. But they want to bring back the same spirit that came with the title some of their dads helped win when Pearland was more a rural town than a bustling city.

Check out this video interview with Coach Pardo and some of the senior players.

Are you excited? Will it be like 1980 if they win?

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Mike Watson, the Pearland school district’s athletic director, said nobody in the University Interscholastic League state office could think of another time that one school sent both the baseball and softball teams to state tournaments the same year. It’s something that both he and the community should be proud of, but he jokingly said, “Put in the Chronicle that ‘Mike Watson needs a raise.’ ”